Dead Districts
by ApatheticAna
Summary: Panem had been infected with a terrible disease. This disease made people rise from the dead, and crave human flesh. Yes, zombies. Annie Cresta had been on her own for almost two years now, fending for herself against the walkers.But, when she meets Finnick Odair and his group, things quickly change for her. (There were never any games, so none of them know each other from before.)
1. Chapter 1

"Shit," the girl quietly swore to herself as her she heard groaning coming from upstairs in the house. Quickly, she pulled out her knife, and took all the cans of food she could, stuffing them in her bag.

Her eyes averted upwards, as she saw the corpse try to make its way down the stairs, but it just ended up tripping and falling. It groaned, making a hissing sound as it tried to get up onto its feet.

Annie quickly stepped toward it, plunging her knife right into its head. That's how you had to kill them. The brain. Otherwise, they just kept standing.

Annie banged on the counter with her knife, making noise so that if any others were in the house, they would come down. After not hearing anything, she took her bag and headed upstairs.

This all happened about four years ago. At first, no one thought anything of it. Just another infectious disease going around. Simple symptoms like a cough, weakness, headache, stomach ache; things that people got all the time. Then, the disease mutated, and people started dying. Not just dying, but.. Coming back. Coming back and not being alive, but instead a walking corpse, wanting to rip into people's skin and feast on human flesh. People started dying real fast. Everyday, Annie remembered seeing something on the news. Another five dead, then next thing you know it, another five million. It was like a slow, painful suicide for the planet. Maybe other countries were doing okay. That's what Annie hoped at least since Panem, the country she lived in, had gone to shit. Maybe things were better in the other Districts. Just maybe.

The girl made her way upstairs and picked out one of the three bedrooms. She looked around the room, and then put her bag down on the bed. She'd spend the night here, and then she'd have to keep going. She was extremely low on food, and ammunition. That's why she stuck to using her knife most of the time.

Annie Cresta had been on her own for almost two years now. For the beginning of it, she was with her family. They had found a refugee camp in District Four and stayed there for awhile. There was food, water, supplies, clothes, people.. But, like every good thing though, it had to come to an end. The camp was overrun by walkers, and so very few people had made it out. Annie did, but not her mother, or her dad, or her sister.

She herself was nineteen years old, or so she thought. She had lost track of the dates, but she knew she was somewhere around nineteen. She had long, dark brown hair that went down to about her belly button and her cheeks were scattered with freckles, below her green eyes. She was short, about five foot three, and she was small and skinny. Too skinny, actually. She had come close to dying of starvation before, and when she did eat, it was usually canned foods that she found in a store or a house. She got by though with what she had. She always found some way to survive.

She was a fighter, a survivor. She hadn't seen another human in over a year. Only walkers. She never stopped seeing those flesh eaters.

Annie laid herself down on the bed, leaning back onto the mattress and sighing contently. She got under the covers, pulling them up to cover herself. Her eyes closed, and just in a few minutes, she fell into a deep sleep, her knife still in her hand.

The next morning, she woke up naturally, extremely happy that she had actually slept through the night peacefully. She sat up, setting her knife down on the nightstand beside her and yawning. She ran her fingers through her hair, and got out of bed, grabbing her knife again.

She gave the house a one last sweep, taking all the bottles of pills in the bathroom cabinets and shoving them in her bag. You never know what you could use things for. It was important to grab everything you might need.

Once she had gotten everything, she exited the house, starting to walk down the street, looking around her for any walkers. She killed a few before she walked into the woods, always finding peace in there, despite the walkers.

She continued walking until suddenly, she heard a voice. She jumped slightly, her heart already begining to race.

"Stop," it said.

It was a male voice, and it sounded aggressive; powerful. But, it was human. Holy shit. A human. Annie stopped in her tracks, hearing a gun cock behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

So many things started racing through her mind at once. Should she kill him? A gun was quicker than a knife. And, he was the first human she had run into in so long. She knew better than to trust anyone though. That's why she preferred being by herself.

"Take all your weapons and put them on the ground. Now," the voice commanded.

Annie closed her eyes for a moment and sighed deeply.

"I will not hesitate to blow your brains out. Put them down. Now," he said.

She had no choice. She had too. She started panicking a little bit now. He was going to take everything of hers and probably kill her. Slowly, she put down her gun and her knife, swallowing roughly. She felt so vulnerable. She wasn't able to protect herself.

"Good. Now the bag," he added.

God dammit. She was going to starve without her things. She slowly took the bag off her shoulder and set it on the ground.

Slowly, she heard his footsteps coming toward her. Then, he walked in front of her and faced her.

She noticed right away his bright, green eyes. Not like her dull ones. They were like emeralds. He was quite handsome. He had a little stubble on his face, signifying that he could shave since he didn't have a beard. That meant he must be in a nice place somewhere. He had shiny, bronze colored hair, almost blondes. He had bags under his eyes though, but who didn't now a days?

He looked at her for a quick second before picking up her bag and her weapons.

"W-Wait, you can't do that," she said, watching him.

"I can, and I will," the man spoke gruffly. He turned around, starting to walk away.

"No! You're just going to leave me out here to starve and be torn apart? That's inhumane!" She was starting to yell now, her voice filled with panic as she went after him and grabbed his arm.

The man looked at her for a moment, and rolled his eyes. He pulled out her own gun, and pointed it at her.

"Go. Start walking. Now," he demanded, looking ahead of him.

"What? Where?" she asked.

"Go."

"You need to tell me where we're going!" she said.

"Why the fuck do you insist on annoying the shit out of me when I have a gun pointed at you? Shut up, and go," he said, sounding more angry when he said this.

Annie looked at him for a moment and started to walk in front of him. She heard him give her directions behind her. Her heart was racing and her eyes filled with tears. Annie was tough, but she was scared. Where was this stranger taking her and why was he forcing her to go? The first person she had seen in two years and he was bitter and mean. Tears started to fall from her eyes and she felt so weak. She wiped them away quickly, looking around.

He guided her through the woods for a long time, almost about a half an hour. They were getting deeper and deeper into the woods. Suddenly, a house came into view. It was strange, because it looked like all the trees had been cleared away from it. The house was large. Not a mansion, but pretty big. There was a high, white fence around it, some parts of the fence splattered with blood.

Annie stopped at the fence, looking back at the man who came up to the fence, unlocking it and walking in. Annie slowly followed along, watching as he shut and locked the gate behind them. They walked down the stone pathway to the door of the house.

The man walked up to the door and knocked in a pattern. Annie figured that was a sort've password, for whatever people inside to know it was him.

The door opened and a woman with shoulder length black hair answered it.

"Hi, Finnick," she said, looking behind him at Annie. "Who is that?"

"I don't know her name, but she needed shelter," he said.

How did he know she needed shelter? It was probably the way she looked. How skinny and bony she was. He could've just told her that though, not just drag her here.

The woman gave Finnick a serious look, and then looked at Annie. Finnick motioned for her to come and she did, following him and looking around. She looked obviously frightened and helpless, which was something she hadn't felt in a long time. It was a terrible feeling, and she hated experiencing it again.

"Go get yourself cleaned up," the woman said to her in a more ordering tone. "You can borrow some of my clothes for now. They're upstairs in the bedroom farthest on the left."

Annie nodded, quickly going upstairs and hearing the woman and Finnick start to talk. She found her room and picked out a pair of sweatpants and a simple t-shirt. Did they really have a shower? She made her way to the bathroom, and closed the door. Slowly, she turned on the water. It wasn't hot, but it was still water. Fresh and clean.

Her spirits lifted just because she could finally get clean. It had been so long since she had a shower. She undressed, getting in and starting to wash her hair thoroughly with shampoo and conditioner. Then, she scrubbed her body as well, trying to get all the dirt off herself.

When she was done, she dried herself off and dressed. She brushed her hair out and picked up her dirty clothes, making her way downstairs.

The dark haired woman was gone now, and Annie followed the voices she heard until she came to a kitchen.

She came into view of six people talking at a table. They all fell silent when she came into the room. They all looked around at each other, seeming not to know what to say. Finnick crossed his arms and stared at her, his face having no emotion on it.

A girl with long, brown hair and a side braid looked to Annie, seeming to force a small smile.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"I'm.. Annie. Annie Cresta," she said with a small nod.

"Hi, Annie. I'm Katniss," she said. Then, she pointed to the woman that Annie had first saw. "That's Johanna." She went down the line of the people. "Cato, Gale, Madge, and Finnick."

"Nice to meet you," Annie said, swallowing roughly and forcing a small smile to appear on her lips.

"Nice to meet you too," Katniss said. "Welcome to the group."


End file.
